The Other Soldier
by enigma939
Summary: Post-Legacy. Aaron Cross ponders about the mysterious Jason Bourne, the man who is behind perhaps EVERYTHING that has happened to him lately.


**The Other Soldier**

**A/N: **This is the second of my post-Legacy fics, tying the world of Aaron Cross with the world of Jason Bourne even further.

During the aimless tranquil days spent floating the Pacific in the trawler, Aaron had a lot of time to think. Think about himself, about Marta. Think about Byer and Outcome. Think about the past and the future. But more often than not, before he even became fully conscious of the fact, he ended up thinking a lot about one man. One name that had reverberated through his mind constantly ever since he saw it on television at the airport back in the States.

Jason Bourne.

Aaron had to confess he still had next to _no _idea who Jason Bourne really was. All he had to go on was speculation and instinct. But he felt convinced that the unknown man whose face had flashed across that TV screen...had a lot to do with his current situation. Perhaps _everything_.

It was not as though he had _never _heard the name before. He vaguely remembered the first time he'd heard of Jason Bourne. He'd been somewhere in Europe...Geneva perhaps, around three years ago. He'd seen a couple of Wanted posters with the man's name and face, along with that of a woman's. Around the same time, he remembered reading a story in some newspaper about Jason Bourne being wanted for questioning by police in Zurich and Paris. But he didn't think much of it at the time. Just another fugitive in an ever-growing list of fugitives in an increasingly paranoid and security-conscious world...

He'd forgotten all about the name, the posters, the articles...everything. Until that day up at the cabin in Alaska. When he'd seen the names inscribed on the wood. And his gaze had lingered on one name in particular-carved out slightly more prominently than any other.

JASON BOURNE

Seeing the name, in an isolated program outpost, nearly caused his mind to erupt with questions. What connection did this Jason Bourne have with Outcome? Was he part of the program? Was he an agent? Or had he been the target of an Outcome mission?

And finally, when he came across the name for the third time at the airport, the pieces started to fall into place...

The news report said that Jason Bourne was allegedly linked to a recently exposed CIA program called Treadstone. That a man named Dr. Albert Hirsch, _also _connected to this program, had suddenly died of a heart attack just before he was going to testify before a Senate committee. That Bourne was still wanted by the police and 'federal authorities'...

It all made sense! He was starting to see the picture. Or at least, a part of it, for the first time. And what he saw, what he learned...astounded him!

The events in London and New York involving Jason Bourne, the exposure of a black ops program, the suspicious death of a man associated with the program...occurring around the same time as the decision to terminate Outcome and all its personnel and agents...was simply too big a coincidence. Ergo, the Treadstone and Outcome programs were connected. What he, and Marta, had been part of, was a _lot _bigger than either of them had known. Outcome was, in all likelihood, just one among _many _black ops programs. The CIA's Treadstone had clearly been one of them.

And Jason Bourne? It could be safely concluded that he had been a Treadstone agent. An operative who'd gone rogue, and eventually exposed the program he'd been part of.

But that was pretty much the full extent of Aaron's knowledge about Jason Bourne. He still didn't know the most important answers of all. Starting with the answer to a fundamental question...

_Why?_

What _were _this Bourne's motives? Why had he exposed Treadstone? Was it because they'd marked him for termination? If so, Aaron could certainly sympathize. Or had he simply had enough? Enough of being manipulated and used? Enough of being kept on a leash?

And there were other questions. More to do with Aaron's curiosity than with any practical value as intel. How capable was Bourne in the field, physically and mentally? Was he in any way enhanced? Were the Treadstone agents dependent on program medication as well? And what did they do in the field? Deep cover infiltration assignments? Or something else entirely?

And _where _the _hell _was the man now?

The more Aaron pondered about these, the more he felt it was crucial he tried to discover the answers to as many of these questions as possible; especially the last one! Because he had a gut feeling that Jason Bourne was at the centre of it all. He was the _key_. To everything that _had_ happened, everything that was happening _now_...and very likely, everything that _would _happen in the near future. Including perhaps, his and Marta's final fates...

So he needed to find out all he could about this other agent, this other _soldier _in the same shadow war he'd been fighting, and was perhaps still fighting. Because he had a feeling that someday, he and Jason Bourne would come face to face. And he needed to be ready for whatever would be the outcome of _that _confrontation...


End file.
